Paul Fletcher (Bradfield, Liberal Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Communications) Share this | Hansard source

I am very pleased to speak and to express my thanks to the members who have contributed to the debate on the Enhancing Online Safety for Children Bill 2014 and the Enhancing Online Safety for Children (Consequential Amendments) Bill 2014. I am particularly pleased that these bills have received support from the opposition and from members from the opposition who have spoken as well as the members on this side of the House.

The importance of keeping Australian children safe on the internet is above politics. It can sometimes be the case that members in this House are subject to criticism in the community—often justified criticism—about playing politics on a range of issues, but I think the debate that we have had on this very important topic is an example of this House working at its best to reflect and to respond to community concern and to do that in a constructive and bipartisan spirit reflecting the importance that every member of this House attaches to the objective of keeping Australian children as safe as possible when they are using the internet.

I want to thank the shadow assistant minister for communications, the member for Greenway, who has taken the lead on this issue on behalf of the opposition. I want to put on record my appreciation of the constructive way in which she has engaged in relation to the detail of this bill, as indeed has the shadow minister for communications, the member for Blaxland.

In the debate on this bill, we have heard some outstanding contributions from members on both sides of the House. We have heard a number of members share stories about their own personal experience in relation to this very important topic. Some have spoken in their capacity as parents. Some have spoken in their capacity as former teachers. Some have spoken in their capacity as members of parliament, having dealt with these issues facing children and parents in their electorates. Many of them have spoken about the discussions that they have had with principals, with teachers and with parents and children in their electorates. I think the breadth of commentary that we have heard is an indicator of the extent of this issue in the Australian community today. I want to thank every member who has made a contribution in a debate which I think has been of a very high standard.

At this time, I also want to express my thanks to a number of people around Australia: parents, siblings or family members of teenagers who tragically have committed suicide or otherwise been lost as a result of dangers that they have been exposed to online. I am not going to mention names, because in some cases I have been told some intensely personal stories. But I do want to acknowledge the courage of a number of people who have taken the time to speak to me about the loss that their family has suffered and to share with me some very difficult stories of the bullying that their lost family member was exposed to.

It is a statement of the obvious that today's children are better informed, better able to express their creativity and better with technology than any previous generation. The internet is a central part of the lives of today's children, and it will be a central part of their lives as adults as well. Children are drawn to the internet for the same reason as adults: it is a means to be informed, to be educated, to be entertained, to express your own ideas and creativity and, most fundamentally, to satisfy the deep-seated human need to interact with other human beings. But, just as with human interactions in any other context, while the majority of interactions online are positive, a minority go wrong. When that happens, the internet, and social media in particular, can make bullying behaviour more dangerous to children who are the victims of it.

On 3 December, the government introduced these bills into the parliament to implement the coalition's election commitment to enhance online safety for children. The bills were developed following substantial public and stakeholder consultation, including consideration of over 80 submissions received in response to the public discussion paper released in January 2014. Research commissioned by the government, led by the University of New South Wales and involving a consortium of universities was undertaken, and the results of that research confirmed the messages that politicians had been receiving from the community regarding the prevalence and impact on Australian children of cyberbullying.

Following that public consultation process, the government has continued to engage with key stakeholders including members of the government's Online Safety Consultative Working Group. I want to thank all of those members—industry representatives, community representatives, representatives of many excellent non-government organisations doing wonderful work in this space—for their contribution.

The bills that are before the House this evening were referred to the Senate Environment and Communications Legislation Committee for inquiry and report, and that report is due by 3 March. There were 29 submissions received by that committee. I would also like to express my thanks to all the organisations that contributed to that inquiry. I do note that a number of submissions made the point that, in their view, the eligibility criteria for the appointment of the commissioner should include experience in or knowledge of child welfare or wellbeing. I want to state that I understand the emphasis that stakeholders have attached to this particular criterion. I also want to note that there is an inherent danger in setting out in the legislation an exhaustive list of criteria together with a requirement that every one of those criteria must be met, because it would necessarily become extremely difficult to find somebody who meets every criterion on a long list.

There are clearly a range of factors that would be positive for a person in the commissioner's role. In the draft bill are the criteria which, in the government's view, are the critical success factors, particularly that the commissioner needs to be a person with a deep understanding of the internet and how it is used. That being said, I want to acknowledge that to have experience in relation to child welfare matters would certainly be a plus for any candidate for the role of the Children's e-Safety Commissioner, although in my view it should not be a mandatory criterion.

The public policy process undertaken to date demonstrates in part that the government does not believe that keeping children safe online is exclusively or even largely a job for government. There is a collective responsibility to keep our children safe online. In that regard, I would like to acknowledge the constructive engagement I have had with the local management teams of a number of the large social media services, including Google, Facebook, Twitter, Microsoft and Yahoo!7. I also want to note the recent statements made by the global CEO of Twitter, Dick Costolo, who said in a company memo, in quite blunt language:

We suck at dealing with abuse and trolls on the platform and we've sucked at it for years …

That is colourful language, but it is a very significant statement from Twitter, acknowledging that that company believes that it needs to do more to combat abuse, trolling and cyberbullying on its platform. I see this as a welcome example of growing recognition by social media platforms of the nature of the social responsibility that attaches to the power that these platforms have. I hope we will see more of that, not least because, if the social media platforms take the lead in offering their users a safe environment in which to interact, that will minimise any need for government intervention. I do want to acknowledge that the social media services have put additional resources into these issues over recent years. A number of the members in the debate did refer to this significant statement from Twitter.

A number of members also referred to some very significant child online safety initiatives launched recently—for example, the eSmart Digital Licence, which is a partnership between the Alannah and Madeline Foundation and Google. The licence is designed to educate and empower children. Another recent initiative is the Thread app from the Carly Ryan Foundation, helping children and young adults to check in with their loved ones, to stay connected and keep safe. I have been very pleased in recent weeks to attend the launch of both these important online safety initiatives. Of course, as part of this government's commitment to online safety for children, we are providing funding of $7.5 million for schools to access online safety programs of the kind delivered by organisations like the Alannah and Madeline Foundation and the Carly Ryan Foundation.

Let me touch on the specific measures in the bills. The legislation will establish the Children's e-Safety Commissioner as an independent statutory office within the Australian Communications and Media Authority, to take a national leadership role in online safety for children. The commissioner will administer a complaints system for cyberbullying material targeted at an Australian child, along with promoting online safety for children and coordinating relevant activities of Commonwealth departments, authorities and agencies in relation to online safety for children. The commissioner will also accredit and evaluate online safety educational programs, along with taking responsibility for administering the existing online content scheme.

The legislation sets out a two-tiered scheme for the rapid removal from large social media services of cyberbullying material targeted at an Australian child. Social media services participating under tier 1 will do so on a cooperative basis—that is, the service will apply to participate and, on acceptance of its application, it will be included as a tier 1 site. The commissioner will have the power to revoke tier 1 status if the service repeatedly fails to remove cyberbullying material following requests from the commissioner over a 12-month period. A service may also be declared tier 2 at its own request. Those services which are declared to be tier 2 sites will be subject to legally binding notices or face the risk of civil penalties for noncompliance.

The two-tiered scheme allows for a light-touch regulatory approach in circumstances where the social media service has an effective complaints scheme that is working well, but it enables the government to require that cyberbullying material targeted at an Australian child be removed in circumstances where a social media service does not have an effective and well-resourced complaints scheme.

The legislation gives the commissioner the power to issue an end user notice to a person who posts cyberbullying material targeted at an Australian child. An end user notice may require the recipient of the notice to take all reasonable steps to remove the material, refrain from posting further material targeted at the child or apologise for posting the material. If the recipient of the notice fails to respond, the commissioner may seek an injunction or refer the matter to the police.

The measures in these bills implement key aspects of the government's election commitment to enhance online safety for Australian children. The measures will bring a better and more rapid response to bullying behaviours targeted at Australian children and in turn will help to keep Australian children safer online. I thank everybody who has contributed to this policy process, and I look forward to continued engagement with all relevant stakeholders as we move to taking this legislation to the other place and in due course, provided it passes there, to the implementation of the measures contained in this legislation.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.

Message from the Governor-General recommending appropriation announced.

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